Woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), also called the tundra mammoth, is the most famous of the mammoths, an extinct group within the family Elephantidae. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia. This mammoth species was first recorded in (possibly 150,000 years old) deposits of the second last glaciation in Eurasia. It disappeared from most of its range at the end of the Pleistocene (10,000 years ago), with a dwarfed version of the race still living on Wrangel Island (a Russian possession near Alaska) until around roughly 1700 BC. Woolly mammoth in "Before the Beginning" Woolly mammoth videos were a popular download from the time-viewer.Futureshocks, p. 94. Woolly mammoth in A Different Flesh The hairy elephant went extinct everywhere but in North America about 8,000 BC. When Europeans arrived in the New World, they quickly saw the potential for the hairy elephant as a beast of burden. The hairy elephant was used to power the railroads of North America for much of the 18th century, until it was phased out and replaced by the steam engine. In 1661, Samuel Pepys attended a lecture at Royal Society concerning the recent discovery of the remains of a hairy elephant in Swanscombe, England. This led Pepys to wonder why the beasts had died out in the Old World but remained alive in the New World. He concluded that men were better hunters than sims and so had hunted the elephants to extinction while the sims had not. This, in turn, helped Pepys to eventually develop his transformational theory of life.See e.g. Kaleidoscope, pgs. 10-11, mpp. Woolly mammoth in "Global Warming" As the Ice Age ended, humans' traditional game of woolly mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses began to following the glaciers northward, leaving the people with only the options of hunting caribou and horses. Woolly mammoth in "The Mrem Go West" The mammoth was an animal well-known to the Mrem, with "I trust him about as far as I can fling a mammoth" being a common expression.Exiled: Clan of the Claw, p. 13. Woolly mammoth in The Opening of the World Mammoths were quite important for survival of humans, especially the nomadic Bizogots, as they provided meat, oil and fur. The ancestors of both ethnic groups of the known world - Bizogots and Raumsdalians, were once mammoth-herders. In fact, Nidaros had once been a mammoth-herding camp by the Hevring Basin. Mammoths were also used for war by the Rulers, something that incensed the Bizogot clans. Woolly mammoth in "The Yorkshire Mammoth" The farmers of Yorkshire saw the value of taming the woolly mammoth and using them as beasts of burden rather than hunting them to extinction centuries ago. This custom essentially died out in the later 20th century, as the glaciers in the northern part of the world began to melt. However, wild mammoths continued to roam the edges of the ice. In 1938, veterinarian George Holley repaired the tusk of a mammoth named Old Bill.Clarkesworld #155. See also *Mastodon, a related extinct elephant. *Mammyth, a fantasy analog of the mammoth in "The Mammyth". *Omphoth, an elephant-like extraterrestrial animal in the Earthgrip universe. References Category:Mammals Category:Prehistoric Fauna Category:Domesticated Animals Category:A Different Flesh Category:And So to Bed Category:The Iron Elephant Category:Global Warming Category:The Mrem Go West Animals Category:The Opening of the World Category:Time-Viewer Recordings Category:The Yorkshire Mammoth